The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The third round of the Red Bull Pro Nationals took place at Canada Heights, Kent on Sunday the 19th July. The track had been well prepped and the whole weekend had a really good atmosphere but for the team it was a real mixed bag.
Both Noble and Rose competed in the 2 stroke Championship the previous day, Noble on his 500 and Rose on a borrowed 250. After winning the first two races and looking odds on for the overall Noble was suddenly left to complete the last race with only one footrest as it was ripped out of the frame after a heavy landing. He somehow managed to get to the flag, albeit in 15th which left him on the 3rd step of the podium behind Carl Nunn and Mark Eastwood. Rose struggled with his borrowed bike in the first two races with seized rear linkage and blown rear brake hose leaving him with 6th and 9th places, but after sorting these problems out he posted a 3rd in the final race for 6th overall.

Red Bull Pro Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two groups with all three STR riders in the second group. Noble was on pole with Rose in 2nd and Parker in 12th.

Race 1
With the organisers changing the format and allowing all the MX2 boys first pick of the gate it was never going to be easy for the MX1 lads to get good starts and this was the case as all three were left buried in the pack in the early stages. Noble made the best early progress and was soon up into the top ten. He was the quickest on the circuit and used this speed to pass most of the field to finish 4th at the finish and 2nd in the MX1 class. Rose’s recent bad luck continued when after making his way through the field, on lap five his bike started to splutter, eventually grinding to a halt with a fuel pump problem. Parker was to suffer an incredible crash as he was dragged off his bike by one of the guide ropes on the Red Bull arch which had sagged across his path as the arch was buffeted by strong winds. He was lucky not to be seriously injured as the rope burnt through his shirt and body armour before catching him round the neck leaving him to sit out the rest of the day with some painful rope burns.

Race 2
Both Noble and Rose had much better starts second time out with Noble in 4th and Rose in 6th. Noble was soon up to second and looked odd on to take the overall as he hunted down early leader Nicholls but as he looked to make a pass on the youngster he over jumped the drop off, landing in a big hollow and throwing him off the bike. He picked it up quickly, not loosing too many places and set off again in 6th. Rose was by now up into 4th behind new leader Nunn, Nichols and Karro but was soon under pressure from the charging Noble who eventually found a way past his teammate. With the MX1 overall in the bag Noble probably should have settled for what he had, but he was intent on catching the three leaders until he stalled coming over the spine jump, pitching him over the bars and leaving his bike to summersault down the steep hill. With Rose inheriting 4th and Church 5th he was left to limp home in 6th for 3rd overall on the day in the MX1 class.

Proppa.com Van Slam
In between the two races we had the third round of the two lap van slam which Noble won from Nunn after passing him a couple of corners from the finish.